EV 949 : Square By Square by Piccadilly

[trux]

Much easier than it looks from the pre-ramble, as clueing is very straightforward (for once you barely need the BRB) and should quite quickly lead you to theme. Extreme care needed in final grid-fill (and perhaps it would be less of a dog's dinner if the titles were to be submitted in unencoded form ?)

[trux]

And it would have been a helpful hint to include in pre-ramble something like "Ignore one apostrophe"....

[Count-A-Strong]

Abso blummin loutly

[devadolly]

A belated Happy New Year to all N & Cer's. Didn't get round to doing last week's, hence the silence. As you both say, not much of a strain grid filling and theme guessing but, have to admit, I'm finding the de-coding a bit hard work, any nice hints out there?

[copelander]

No, DD, I don't think there are any short cuts to the encoding; it's just a bit of a slog, but otherwise fairly straightforward.

[dr b]

A well constructed puzzle made simpler by the easy cluing; and we've seen this theme in the EV very recently!

DD, I agree with copelander, following the directions and being careful is the key. Be sure to use the FULL name of 25a (3 words) and be careful in not repeating any letters in the 25a string. The 16a string contains the letters to the coded titles that appear in the grid; the 25a string contains the letters to the actual titles.

[Christiana]

I heartily endorse all that's been said about the lack of difficulty, but also about the need to be careful. With only 9a to go I did all the encoding, had the titles but had the wrong final letter. Why - because I had an anagram of the girl for 2d which fitted in equally well (apart from the said 9a which I hadn't got). Now happily completed, but what will I do with the rest of the week?

[devadolly]

Thanks drb & copelander, will try again a little later, I have the full name and quite a list of the copious works............................skool report sez, must try harder!

[kayakamina]

As has been said, this was much easier than it first looked.

Congratulations to Ulysses of this parish for his success with EV 946.

[Christiana]

Congratulations Ulysses - I hadn't realised that was you, so to speak. (English is a wonderful language, isn't it?)

[gen2]

All done and dusted, but could someone please explain the title?

I can't think to what it refers apart from coding the letters 'square by square?

. . . and congratulations Ulysses if that was indeed you.

[ulysses100]

Hi all. I haven't started on this week's EV yet. I am still basking in the glow of seeing that I am the winner of the pre-Christmas crossword.! Thanks for your felicitations. I hope that we see many more AB winners here in the future for this and for all the other crosswords that we enjoy doing.

[trux]

gen 2 : ref Title - I reckon Piccadilly was trying to create wordplay for answer to 25A : first word is an example of a famous Square (sort of, but no aposotrophe - can anyone come up with something better ?) ; second word, more obviously, think mathematically ...

[trux]

.... or maybe just a Square (reference to shape of crossword) by Square (reference to author's surname) ...

[devadolly]

Wow! Many congrats to Ulysses100 on the win, especially as you are one of the kind souls who help we elderly and frail failing brains to "cotton on"...........milk it for all it is worth and have a special tincture to celebrate. It is great isn't it, when opne of our N & C'ers gets the prize! Still haven't6 attempted to unravel the coding...............think I might start that evil jigsaw a friend (friend?) gave me for Christmas........Waterloo Station in 1848 on one side of each piece, and 1948 on the other...............I have a cunning plan.........

[copelander]

Congratulations, Ulysses, your name does keep appearing in the winner's slot, so very well done. DD, just take care and follow the instructions!

[gen2]

Thanks Trux, I see it now as 'Apostle' squared. Not the most helpful of titles (not that it was needed).

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, be careful with the decoding. I was thinking how gentle this was, and totally ignored the 'full name' instruction - initially producing gobbledygook. Very nicely set, I thought.